Match BookI Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness
Irene Solà
2023 · 176 pages · Literary fiction
How it reads
I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness is literary fiction (experimental rural gothic, specifically), and its dominant mood is eerie. It's atmospheric and uncanny, with a sense that something is wrong. It's a slow burn: character-driven, with a payoff that comes from accumulation rather than twists. It rewards attention and suits unhurried reading more than five-minute gaps.
It's set in a rural setting, in the historical past, told through letters, documents or mixed forms. Its central concerns are family, nature and loss and grief. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 176 pages it's a single-sitting book. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something eerie
- you have time to settle in
- you want something to chew on
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or heartwarming
- you're reading in five-minute gaps
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- literary fiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- rural
- Setting: time
- historical
- Mood / feeling
- eerie
- Pace
- slow burn
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- letters, documents or mixed forms
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- family, nature, loss and grief
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- HarrowJoy WilliamsShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
- WitchesBrenda LozanoShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
The Hole小山田浩子Shares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
SistersDaisy JohnsonShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn- The HoleHiroko OyamadaShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
The Water CureSophie MackintoshShares: literary fiction, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
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